Products, including computer systems or any other information handling system, can be manufactured according to a build-to-stock or a build-to-order manufacturing process. A build-to-stock manufacturing model is characterized by the manufacture of quantities of identical products on the basis of forecasted demand. A build-to-order manufacturing process is characterized by the manufacture of the computer system or other product, only after the time that an order is received for the product. A build-to-order manufacturing process facilitates the manufacture of customized products in response to customer orders and reduces inventory requirements, as the products, once manufactured, may be shipped directly to the customer. A build-to-order manufacturing process is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,236,901, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Most manufacturing environments include a manufacturing facility and a shipping facility. In some manufacturing environments, the manufacturing facility is integrated with the shipping facility as part of a single physical facility. Once the manufacture of the product is complete, the product is shipped to the customer. Larger orders received from a single customer are typically divided into lots for the purpose of tracking the order, and manufacturing and shipping the order. Typically, there is a maximum number of ordered units per lot. One example of the maximum number of units in a lot may be fifty units. If the total number of units ordered is less than fifty, the lot size for the unit is the number of units ordered. As an example if a customer orders 100 units, the order will be divided into two lots of 50. If the customer orders ten units, the order will have a single lot of ten units. In this manufacturing scheme, only completed lots will be shipped to the customer. If a fifty-unit lot of 200 unit order is complete, the lot may be shipped to the customer. If a ten-unit lot of a ten-unit order is complete, the lot, which comprises the entire order, can be shipped to the customer. In contrast, even if forty-nine units of a fifty-unit lot are complete, the incomplete lot is not shipped to the customer until the manufacture of the final unit of the lot is complete.
The shipping of an incomplete lot, sometimes referred to as short-shipping, adds an undesirable administrative burden to the shipping and order fulfillment process. This administrative burden is magnified when the manufacturing process involves the manufacture of thousands of customized units each day to a multitude of customers. To accomplish short-shipping in this environment, the customer order would have to be subdivided into one or more smaller orders. In addition, customers are accustomed to receiving all ordered units at once or receiving ordered units in large lots (of fifty units, for example) for large-unit orders. Shipping incomplete lots or incomplete orders to customers tends to create customer confusion, as the number of units received does not match the number of units ordered. In contrast, shipping complete lots, which sometimes comprise complete orders in and of themselves, is an aid to the throughput of the manufacturing and shipping process.
The throughput of the entire manufacturing process may be compromised by the accumulation of incomplete lots in the shipping facility. In the example of the fifty-unit lot in which forty-nine units are complete, the completed units will typically be placed in the shipping facility or warehouse. Depending on the physical characteristics of the units, these units may consume a substantial amount of floor space in the shipping facility. If a sufficient number of incomplete, space-consuming lots accumulate in the shipping facility, the operation of the shipping facility is hindered. If these incomplete lots are not completed, thereby allowing the completed lots to ship to the customer, all of the available storage space in the shipping facility will eventually be consumed by incomplete lots. When this condition occurs, the entire manufacturing process itself may shut down. Because it is no longer possible to store completed units, no more units can be manufactured until space becomes available to temporarily house completed units. In addition, because each completed order must pass through the shipping facility, if only briefly, each order that is in process in the manufacturing facility must be allocated space in the shipping facility during the time that the product is being manufactured. The allocation of space, even if the space is not used, to in-process orders further contributes to the consumption of space in the shipping facility.
Often, the accumulation of incomplete lots in the shipping facility is exacerbated by the manufacturing priority of completing the manufacturing of aged orders versus the shipping priority of shipping large lot orders to clear storage space in the shipping facility. In many manufacturing environments, the products are manufactured in build cells. Typically, an order of fifty units will not be completed in a single build cell. Instead, the order will be completed in parallel across several build cells, with each build cell completing not more than a handful of the units of the order. A goal of manufacturing is the completion of the oldest order, while the goal of a distribution process is to ship those lots that are nearest to completion and that are consuming space in the shipping facility. Consider the example of two orders of fifty units each and assume that the normal process time for the completion of each order is ten hours. The first order (Order A) is complete with the exception of one unit and has an order age of just two hours. As such, forty-nine units of Order A are in the shipping facility and will ship once the last unit of Order A is complete. The second order (Order B) includes twenty-five complete units and twenty-five incomplete units. Order B has an order age of twenty hours. Because it is often a goal of manufacturing to complete the order having the oldest order age, the manufacturing personnel may place a priority in completing Order B before Order A. Although, completing Order B before Order A will permit manufacturing to clear from its record an aged order, the failure to complete Order A will prevent a nearly complete order from shipping. Preventing nearly complete Order A from shipping will cause the completed units of Order A to consume space in the shipping facility and reduce the rate of overall throughput of the manufacturing and shipping process.